Betting on Cursor & Collaborating in AI 6/18/26

**SPEAKER_1** (0:00)
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**SPEAKER_2** (0:28)
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**Michael Fertik** (0:58)
Bring in show music, please.

**Katie Kramer** (1:02)
Hi, I'm CNBC producer, Katie Kramer. Today on Squawk Pod, a new era at the Federal Reserve on the first decision day of President Trump's handpicked chairman, Kevin Warsh, the central bank is keeping rates unchanged. Our Steve Liesman.

**Steve Liesman** (1:17)
He's got a lot of confidence in his program and his plan and his ideas.

**Katie Kramer** (1:22)
And both the US and Iran have signed an agreement to end the war. But there's still a long road of negotiations ahead. One item, Iran's wish to toll ships passing through the Strait of Hormuz. CNBC's Eamon Javers.

**Eamon Javers** (1:36)
Can the Gulf countries prevent something without military force that the United States was unable to prevent with military force?

**Katie Kramer** (1:43)
Then AI executives joined world leaders at the G7 for a working lunch this week. One exec who joined OpenAI's Sam Altman and Anthropics Dario Amodei, among others, joined us, Synthesia CEO Victor Riparbelli.

**Victor Riparbelli** (1:57)
My sense from the room is that countries want to work together. We want to work with other democracies to set the right guardrails for this technology, but also make sure we don't get in the way of innovation.

**Katie Kramer** (2:09)
Plus the fast pace of innovation. Venture capitalist Michael Fertik bet on software coding startup Cursor, the company SpaceX is acquiring for 60 million. By now, Vibe coding is almost old news.

**Michael Fertik** (2:22)
By the time the category has a settled name, half of the gains, this is important, half the gains that will ever be realized in that category have already been captured by the very earliest investors and founders and stockholders.

**Katie Kramer** (2:35)
It is Thursday, June 18th, 2026 Squawk Pod begins right now.

**Eamon Javers** (2:41)
Fan Joe buy in three, two, one, cue Joe.

**Joe Kernen** (2:46)
Good morning and welcome to Squawk Box here on CNBC, live from the NASDAQ market site in Times Square. I'm Joe Kernen, along with someone that, I mean, it was a little bit, I thought, humiliating the way you begged to come back after last week.
Just begged, and what could I do but to say, you know what, that didn't happen. At all, we begged her, in fact, because Becky and Andrew are both off today, and you can imagine if it was just me.

**Kelly Evans** (3:18)
I can imagine.

**Joe Kernen** (3:20)
You can't imagine, yeah. We didn't want that. Anyway, thank you.

**Kelly Evans** (3:23)
Thanks for having me. Meanwhile, the Federal Reserve voting to keep rates unchanged, and at his first press conference as chairman, Kevin Warsh talked about changes to Central Bank is making and set the tone for financial markets.

**Kevin Warsh** (3:36)
What we've given markets is a new chapter for the Central Bank.
Some fresh thinking. This is a lot of change for financial markets to digest. I wouldn't be particularly intrigued by how they react in the first several minutes or even for several days. What I think is most important is that financial markets and at least as important. Households and businesses know that this Central Bank will deliver on price stability.

**Joe Kernen** (4:04)
The first Kevin Warsh led Fed meeting in press conference rattled markets, maybe the opposite of what he wanted. I don't know. One day phenomenon from all time highs basically, Steve, I don't want to make too much of it. I saw you there. Someone was asking a question and you were looking down, you looked very pensive on who were you sitting next to?

**Steve Liesman** (4:26)
I have the Fox reporter and the Bloomberg television reporter on my right and left. I am A2 and the Fox reporter is what I call Steak Sauce because he's A1.

**Joe Kernen** (4:39)
Who was that?
I know that guy. Yeah, he's been there a long time. Yeah, Ed something?